Former Las Vegas prep wrestler turns bodybuilder with great aspirations

The words are harsh and raw, a rap song about facing the world when all dreams seem to die. It talks about making your own bed in life and doing your own thing, about victory meaning spending your time right and getting your mind right and making sure your grind is right.

Jordin Ramirez is a big fan of Nipsey Hussle and lyrics that seem to define how best to attack the challenges of our existence, and through such messages has discovered a way to make every day count.

That within his physique and health and strength and functionality lies purpose.

“I wake up every morning and realize this is my life,” Ramirez said. “I love the process more than the finished product. If a day came where I didn’t weigh my food or prepare my meals or get my cardio in, it wouldn’t feel right.

“This is who I am. I’m a bodybuilder.”

It’s a journey Ramirez embraced two years ago, an Arbor View High School alumnus who sees in this arena of symmetry and size and presentation an opportunity to build a career beyond his next pose.

He will compete in the Fitness America event Saturday at the Golden Nugget, the fifth time Ramirez will walk on a stage wearing board shorts in Musclemania Physique and hope his presence and personality and every inch of his chiseled form is evaluated at a higher level than others in the junior men’s class.

They say watery abs are frowned upon, which explains the absence of any sports writers in the event.

Ramirez will arrive to his seventh show overall with the aid of just a few committed souls, having chosen to forgo the popular route of personal coaches and large teams of support involved in the process of chasing professional status.

There are countless motivational quotes within a sport whose history dates to stone-lifting traditions in ancient Greece and Egypt, most about having a strong mind and body, about creating willpower instead of finding it, about working hard in silence and letting success be your noise.

In this sense, from the solitary of late-night lifting sessions in his garage and the often cloak of anonymity while grinding away at a local gym, Ramirez at age 20 refuses for his dreams to die while embracing an environment of intense focus and labor, all in the hopes of creating something that lasts.

A legacy.

FINDING HIS HOME

At its simplest form, bodybuilding is described as the use of progressive resistance exercise to control and develop one’s musculature, and names such as Charles Atlas and Arnold Schwarzenegger helped influence the rise in popularity of the sport to its current level.

But it wasn’t until recent years when a Physique Division was added to the Musclemania World Tour, where men who wanted to display their upper bodies in a classic, natural, beach body form found a home to compete in the premier natural bodybuilding organization.

This is where Jordin Ramirez pursues his dreams.

He played baseball as a kid growing up in Las Vegas and wrestled in high school, but it was by earning a black belt in taekwondo that he says taught him the discipline now needed to train and diet to extreme levels.

The idea is to appear lean and muscular but not dehydrated, and the process of obtaining such an image is beyond taxing.

“I think Jordin feels the same way a lot of us do,” women’s competitor Sabrina Kearns said. “This is a way to inspire others, to motivate them, to encourage them. It is a lot of blood, sweat and tears. It’s 100 percent commitment and sacrifice. Night and day. It’s your life, and you become addicted to it. This is our stress reliever.”

Ramirez knew about cutting weight from his time wrestling, and when someone at a gym mentioned he had a natural build for Physique, he began watching YouTube videos of various competitors and worked at a nutrition store to learn that side of the business. He fell in love with the look, and by the time his senior year at Arbor View arrived, Ramirez had decided to commit his life to achieving it.

He trains from February through November, which means operating at a calorie deficit of 2,600 daily. He walks around at 175 pounds, but will step on stage Saturday 10 pounds lighter. It’s not that he doesn’t enjoy a cheat day every now and then or know what to do when one arrives, which mostly occurs during the maintenance portion of his weight regimen.

“I don’t eat just a few slices of pizza,” Ramirez said. “I eat the whole thing, and then go get ice cream.”

The idea for most Physique competitors is to train smarter and not harder, meaning that instead of bench pressing 225 pounds 10 times in a set, he instead lifts 135 for 25 reps. When training reaches its maximum level and calories are scarce as a show nears, one doesn’t have enough energy to go all Schwarzenegger on free weights.

Which bring us to another very real and controversial aspect of bodybuilding: The idea anyone can look like this and, well, not be on something other than approved supplements.

Yes, doping has been just as obvious in this sport as any other.

Maybe more so.

THE STIGMA OF JUICE

The Terminator once said this: “The mind is the only limit. As long as the mind can envision something, you can do it.”

It also has been proven that a little help from synthetic substances can really build muscle.

Schwarzenegger competed in a time when the rise of anabolic steroids in bodybuilding was at its highest level, when one’s mass and size reached levels not previously seen.

Mortals became monsters, and monsters became Mr. Olympia.

Ramirez is well aware a certain percentage of folks will look at him in a gym or on a competition stage and at no point believe his is a totally natural appearance, that merely combining diet and lifting with vitamins couldn’t possibly create what their eyes see.

“I remember the first time someone said that,” Ramirez said. “I was training, and a woman was working out, and she asked my dad what steroids I was running. He told her I was natural, and she said, ‘That’s (bleep). I know when someone is running something.’

“Whenever someone asks or accuses, I ask them if they are wondering because they are comparing themselves to me. If so, did you get up for 30 minutes of cardio this morning after staying up until midnight prepping your meals every day the last few months? Did you go and train your ass off for two hours in the gym today? Did you then spend 30 minutes posing and squeezing and holding every muscle in your body? Did you then do 30 minutes more of cardio? Did you make sure that you drank two gallons of water every day for the last 16 weeks while maintaining a calorie deficit?

“Those are things people aren’t doing that I am. They don’t realize all that goes into it. They see a finished product and assume.”

The top five finalists in each division or weight class at an international event such as the one Saturday are subject to drug testing, and a positive result means the competitor is disqualified, must forfeit any prizes and/or rewards and is ineligible for any Musclemania or Figure Universe event worldwide for at least two years.

It’s not the strictest of drug policies, for sure, not even close, but acts as a deterrent to those who enjoy competing and might be using all the same.

“I hear it a lot from people who are actually on stuff and can’t get their desired look,” Ramirez said. “They’re like, ‘I’m on stuff and look like this, so how can you be natural and look like that?’ Truth is, they’re spending all their money running steroids more than just putting in the work and eating the proper foods.

“I just know whatever they say or think doesn’t bother me.”

THE CORPORATE SIDE

Nipsey Hussle once made $100,000 in a day by selling 1,000 copies of his mixtape on the streets of Los Angeles, a rapper who believes it’s possible to profit from one’s art without compromising integrity.

It’s the sort of independent nature that Ramirez admires about the music mogul and after which he is now patterning his own corporate endeavors.

“I think his commitment and ability to persevere is unmatched,” said Vernon Fox, a former NFL player and now the football coach at Faith Lutheran High who has known Ramirez for years and served as his religious sponsor and confirmation mentor. “His faith is going to guide him through this. It gives you stability and hope, even in those rough moments when things aren’t going as you would like. It’s the reason he is going to be successful in this journey.”

Ramirez and his father, Willie, have started a company that at this point includes personal training by Jordin and various food seasonings and apparel, with plans of opening a gym and offering meal prep service while their products line the shelves of nutrition stores.

“I don’t really see an end game to any of it,” said Jordin, whose long-term Musclemania goals include earning professional status in Men’s Physique, Classic Physique and Bodybuilding. “I see all of it growing and growing to the point I can leave it to my kids one day. I’ve always wanted something in my name, a trademark, something of my own to develop.

“Everything is coming together.

“This is who I am. I’m a bodybuilder.”

Intent on not letting his dreams die.

Contact columnist Ed Graney at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be a heard on “Seat and Ed” on Fox Sports 1340 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on Twitter.